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March 8, 2004
Cubans enter wireless age Reuters, 03.01.04, 10:17 AM ET
HAVANA, March 1 (Reuters) - Cuba will offer cell phone service to local residents for the first time, the official media reported on Monday, as the Caribbean island scrambles to modernize its telecommunications.
"Starting the second half of the year the population will benefit from the installation and distribution of cellular telephones, a service up to now available only in dollars," Villa Clara province's official weekly, Vanguardia, said.
"In the future the basic development of telecommunications will be cellular and wireless," Vanguardia reported.
The island's 11.3 million people have almost no access to mobile phones. Cell phones are available to tourists and other foreign visitors.
The way was cleared for the wireless network late last year when fixed-line operator Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba SA (Etecsa) took over state-owned Celulares del Caribe (C-Com) and joint venture telefonos Celulares de Cuba SA (Cubacel), paying the state's main partner, Canada's Sherritt International Inc.
The two cell phone companies had exclusive rights to frequencies and had balked at offering services in local pesos, which have no value outside the country.
State-owned Etecsa, in which Telecom Italia S.p.A.
The Communications and Information Technology Ministry reported in 2003 that it would quickly distribute up to 300,000 cell phones.
Industry sources said the peso-priced wireless network will be subsidized through high-cost dollar services to foreigners and charges slapped on incoming calls from the United States, where many residents have relatives.
Cuba's telecommunications are among the least developed in Latin America and the Caribbean. The government reported at the close of 2002 that there were 710,000 operating lines, for a density of 6.3 per 100 inhabitants.
A foreign industry supplier said the government wanted to develop a wireless network priced in pesos, not dollars, as new technology had made it cheaper and quicker to install wireless versus fixed-line systems.
Copyright 2004, Reuters News Service
